A new study from Community Marketing, Inc. provides insights about how gay men and lesbians spend their money and live their lives.While the survey is geared toward branding and advertising data, the results also have important implications for the health of the LGBT community as well as for understanding how the community’s culture continues to evolve. Here are some of the findings (Note: Though the study included people who identify as bisexual and transgender, the reported data focused almost exclusively on gay man and lesbians, which perhaps is itself an interesting insight into expectations for LGBT marketing.):

Gay men and lesbians have gym memberships (38 percent) at higher rates than the national average (24 percent).

Gay men (27 percent) and lesbians (23 percent) smoke cigarettes at higher rates than the national averages for adult men (22 percent) and women (17 percent).

Gay men, especially those ages 18-29, are much more likely to drink spirits or cocktails than beer, though beer is twice as popular on average nationally among men.

The acronym “LGBT” is increasingly more popular than “GLBT,” though gay men prefer to be branded under the less-inclusive “Gay & Lesbian” umbrella.